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NOTE: This article originally appered in the Dec. 31 issue of CAROLINA.

by Robbi
Pickeral

CHAPEL
HILL -- On one hand, North Carolina senior Leslie McDonald is back where
he wants to be: in uniform, on the court, taking and making 3s.

On the
other hand, the reserve wing is still working his way back to where he still
knows he can be: leading, defending, making a bigger impact.

"The
shots are going down, so that's definitely a confidence booster,'' the 6-foot-5
shooter from Memphis said after Saturday's victory over Northern Kentucky. "But
I've still got to get the rust out, still got to play better defense ... I've
still got to help us get better as a team."

It's been
less than two weeks since McDonald was reinstated by the NCAA after sitting out
the first nine games of the season for accepting impermissible extra benefits.
But in his three games back, he's made his presence known, particularly on
offense, knocking down 47.1 percent of his 3-point attempts while averaging
11.7 points.

Perhaps
most key: he already has connected on more 3s (eight total) than every other
Tar Heel not named "Marcus Paige," combined.

"He
balances our backcourt scoring a lot,'' said Paige, UNC's leading scorer at
18.7 ppg. "It rested heavily on me for the beginning games. Now he gives other
teams another player to gameplan for, recognizing he's a great 3-point shooter.
That frees up everything."

Indeed,
until McDonald's return, those players not named "Paige" had made only 4 of 28
shots from beyond the arc, putting a great big bullseye (and sometimes a
box-and-one defense) on the sophomore guard.

Sitting
on the bench in street clothes those first nine games, McDonald said he was
itching to help - "even if I wasn't knocking down shots, I just wanted to be
able to get in there, pass the ball around, get people open, play," he said.

So even
as he primarily practiced with the reserves on the "blue" team as his
eligibility issues were being sorted out, McDonald used that time to try to
hone his approach. "I learned new things,'' he said. "Getting open, getting
other people open and really working on my shot consistently."

When he
checked into his first game of the season, Dec. 18 against Texas, just hours
after the school officially announced he had been reinstated, McDonald was both
eager and hyped. But he said he still couldn't quite believe he was playing
again, even as finished with 15 points in 22 minutes off the bench in the loss.

It
finally hit the next day in practice, he said, when he found himself teamed
again with the likes of Paige, James Michael McAdoo and the Tar Heels' other
top players.

"Usually
we split up, and run dummy offense -- and they're like, 'Leslie, no you're over
here,'" McDonald remembered, smiling. "Normally I run to the 'blue' [team's]
side, and I was like, 'My bad - I'm back!'"

And he
wants to make the most of it.

McDonald,
who sat out the entire 2011-12 season because of a knee injury, has reiterated
that regrets the actions that kept him sidelined for so long, saying in a
statement upon his reinstatement that he felt blessed to have another chance to
play for UNC, and with his teammates: "I apologize to everyone who cares
about the University of North Carolina and will do what I can to make up for
it. You never know how much you love to play the game until you are not allowed
to."

Even as
McDonald continues to shoot off the rust, UNC coach Roy Williams said Friday
that having him back - especially his ability to score from long distance -
benefits the team, and "hopefully it's going to help us more down the line."

That's
McDonald's aim. The senior said more practices will continue to help him get
back into sync with his teammates, and playing lock-down defense will be a
personal goal.

"It's
hard when you're on the sideline, not dressed [in uniform], you kind of feel a
little bit distanced from the team,'' he said. "But now that I'm back on the
court, knocking down shots, going through plays, doing the little things, it
feels good.

"... If I can
be consistent from outside, play great defense, get my teammates open shots,
those are the biggest things. I don't care how we do it, how many points I
score, as long as we get wins."